Week 4 2015: Thoughts after rewatching the game...

This is becoming repetitive...

1) Kap: I want to be careful here. I don't want to make it sound as if it's all his fault but I also don't want to scapegoat him and make excuses for him. There are issues all over the offense, but a big part of the blame for these last two performances falls on his shoulders.

I've never seen him look like this. After looking like he was taking a step forward in weeks 1 and 2, it looks like he is playing scared now. Throwing at peoples feet, throwing behind receivers, over throwing guys by 10 yards, standing in the pocket (when he has time) trying to go through reads, but completely unwilling to throw the ball or take even the smallest of chances. When he does decide to throw the ball, he throws late or inaccurately.

In short, he's looking more and more like the pre-2011 (or more accurately pre-mid 2010) Alex Smith. What is the most frustrating is that we've all seen him play so much better than this. "Defenses have figured him out". I really don't buy that one. Yes, teams have figured out what he's good at, but in 2012 he was NEVER this inaccurate. He'd fit the ball in tight spaces. He wasn't afraid to make a mistake. This isn't just a case of what defenses are doing to him. This is a player that appears to have lost all confidence in what he sees.

He looks paralyzed. He's stuck in his head. I don't know if there is a way out or if he's permanently damaged...but I for one think he needs to keep playing if for no other reason than to see if he CAN bounce back to see what they do next year and beyond at the QB position.



2) Hyde: Gee, would have been nice to see him get the ball a few more times.



3) Armstead: Liking what I'm seeing of the rook. Gets push, gets his hands up...definitely something there to work with.



4) Lynch: Lynch had himself a pretty damn good game. Two sacks and applied pressure all day. Was also in the backfield a few times in the run game. Really starting to play well. Hope this continues. He's not Aldon in 2012, but definitely an improving player. Granted, the GB RT is a backup and clearly had issues, but still good to see.



5) Ward: He had a tall task all game and he got burnt a few times, but all in all not a bad outing. That's the best QB in the league out there and that's one of the best slot WRs in the name that he was being asked to cover. Not too bad for a second year converted safety.



6) Defense in general: Outside of the opening drive of the game, they CERTAINLY played well enough to win. HUGE improvement over weeks 3 and 4. Even in that opening drive they held them to a three and out if not for a ticky-tack penalty. I don't really know what to believe here though. Is this what we can expect moving forward? Has Mangini learned the "keep it simple stupid" philosophy or will he continue to tinker themselves to 40 point losses. Dunno. Time will tell.



7) O-Line: I don't even know where to start. Kap has played poorly. There is no question here. This isn't a scapegoat comment...but he is getting little to no help from the guys in front of him. I don't think I've ever seen an Offensive line go from so good to so bad in such a short time. They can't pass block and they can't run block. Other than that they were fine. I'm no expert but I'll take a stab at it and guess that losing 2 former 1st round picks on the line and replacing them with two guys who graded as two of the worst linemen in the league last year MIGHT have something to do with it. Call me crazy.

There is some level of expectation that the line will struggle with new players, new schemes, etc, but this is ludicrous. They need to make personnel changes.



8) Pinion: Getting really hard to watch the roller coaster. Kids got a leg, no question. Comical how almost every kickoff goes out the back of the endzone...but his punts are an adventure. He can hit a few really good ones...and then he'll shank one out of bounds. Such is the life with a rookie Punter.



9) Celek/McDonald: I gotta say, Celek is impressing me. He's not dynamic, but he finds open spaces, he can block, and most of all HE CATCHES THE DAMN BALL. I've supported McDonald from the beginning and I haven't given up on the guy yet...but when Kap has one of his very few highlight real plays and the guy just flat drops the ball...I had a few choice 4 letter words for him. I had just leaned over and told my wife that he made a great block for Kap just prior...and then he dropped that ball. SOOO frustrating.



10) Surviving: So, its another week of avoiding talk radio for me. It's really tough to see a team you watched get constructed get completely stripped down and have the slow realization that we are in another rebuild. Its still early and a lot can happen. Its worth mentioning that the teams the Niners have played are a collective 11-5 and 8-4 if you take the Niner games out of the equation, but this might just be a really long year.

Originally posted by Marvin49:

9) Celek/McDonald: I gotta say, Celek is impressing me.

Jeep was impressed too because he designed the entire offense around Celek

Like the analysis as always.. This is a definite rebuild year but I think we have the young talent already in place for it to be a quick rebuild. A top draft pick or 2 on the o-line will be a huge step in the right direction. Must figure out qb situation though. We will see how the rest of the year pans out to figure out what we need to do there. If we're top 5 in the draft, I think everyone knows what we need to do

I think about 15 years ago is when a Carolina Panthers team won the first game of the season and then proceeded to lose the rest to finish 1-15, even though they seemingly had more talent than such an abysmal record. Am I in self-denial this is the basic state of the 2015 Niners?

Kap is scared to pull the trigger so much hesitation

Originally posted by ninerjok:
I think about 15 years ago is when a Carolina Panthers team won the first game of the season and then proceeded to lose the rest to finish 1-15, even though they seemingly had more talent than such an abysmal record. Am I in self-denial this is the basic state of the 2015 Niners?

yes

Agreed with all of it! Two big things for me...

Defense in general - looked much better and we were getting pressure with 4 guys. I hated seeing the 3-man rush in the previous games, so it was nice to see them go back to the 4-man rush pretty much 90% of the time.

Kap - he looks lost, completely flipping lost. He is not a great QB, but he is not this bad. He may be broken...

Originally posted by NorthBay49er:
Kap is scared to pull the trigger so much hesitation

I agree...he is stuck between throwing and running. Hesitates to do either and gets hammered because of it. He's simply not functioning as a QB at the moment.

At least one poster in the gameday thread was claiming that receivers were not getting open. I disagree and look forward to the film breakdown thread for more information.

The worst part about Kap looking frozen/lost/broken, is that I don't know if there's a coach on the staff that can snap him out of it. GeepLo aren't proven at developing NFL QBs at the NFL level. Kap has to take it upon himself to snap out of this funk. This is a fork in the road for his career path. He look scared to make mistakes.

The most telling sign for me in the GB game is that once they got in the red zone, he took two sacks. Everything already seems to be moving too fast for Kap. In the redzone, everything moves faster because of the condensed field. The two sacks are a sign that everything is just a blur and he isn't processing information quick enough.

I'm really interested in seeing if there were any open WRs on the Cover0's that GB came with. Also, those two sacks in the redzone and what the 49ers were doing.

The defense brought their game. They did everything they could. Absolutely no complaints on that side of the ball except for the time Reid got juked by Rodgers on a scramble.

Originally posted by Marvin49:
9) Celek/McDonald: I gotta say, Celek is impressing me. He's not dynamic, but he finds open spaces, he can block, and most of all HE CATCHES THE DAMN BALL. I've supported McDonald from the beginning and I haven't given up on the guy yet...but when Kap has one of his very few highlight real plays and the guy just flat drops the ball...I had a few choice 4 letter words for him. I had just leaned over and told my wife that he made a great block for Kap just prior...and then he dropped that ball. SOOO frustrating.

Sorry Marvin but I don't know what you're hoping to see from this guy. Complete bust for being taken as high as he was. When he actually does catch a pass we know have to be worried about him fumbling. I never liked the pick and Baalke is losing a lot of ground with me lately.

Kap had his running backs wide open multiple times all game. Dude hates the check down. Makes no sense at all

Originally posted by Marvin49:
but this might just be a really long year.

Might?

Here's why I want to move on from kap:



Points Per Game

Completely unacceptable.

What is that a graph of?

...
7) O-Line: I don't even know where to start. Kap has played poorly. There is no question here. This isn't a scapegoat comment...but he is getting little to no help from the guys in front of him. I don't think I've ever seen an Offensive line go from so good to so bad in such a short time. They can't pass block and they can't run block. Other than that they were fine. I'm no expert but I'll take a stab at it and guess that losing 2 former 1st round picks on the line and replacing them with two guys who graded as two of the worst linemen in the league last year MIGHT have something to do with it. Call me crazy.

There is some level of expectation that the line will struggle with new players, new schemes, etc, but this is ludicrous. They need to make personnel changes.
...

I will lose a lot of faith in this coaching staff if they don't immediately reshuffle the offensive line. The right side is clearly not getting it done and somebody needs to get benched.